Gasification is a process that converts carbon-based materials and water into hydrogen and carbon monoxide from a controlled reaction of the carbon with oxygen and water at elevated temperatures. The resulting synthesis gas may be used to generate electric power or produce chemicals. However, the process also generates petroleum waste byproducts, including petroleum coke ash and petroleum coke slag. In most cases, the petroleum waste byproducts contain valuable metals such as nickel, vanadium, and iron.
Conventional methods have been used to extract metals from petroleum waste byproducts, but these methods typically require leaching (acid and/or base leaching.) The leaching is, in general, a lengthy and less ecological process that generates additional waste products and may require additional processing to remove the metals from the leachate, extractant, and/or sorbent.
Therefore, a need exists for a simplified process with no leaching requirements for recovering metals from source materials like petroleum waste byproducts and ore.